Good is The New Bad
by A.J. Wates
Summary: Zeus has always been less than trusting as a king. But when he finds letters between Luke and Percy dated before the Titan War, he goes to the extreme.


"You'd think they'd be tired of calling you up there." Percy's mother said as she gave her son once over. "But I suppose its not like they have anything other to do."

The Jackson family shared a look before breaking down into soft giggles. Yes, the almighty gods of Olympus had nothing better to do then ruin a teenager's first day of summer break. As if they hadn't been doing the same already by existing. It seemed they went through so much trouble just to make his life miserable.

"We both know they're much too vain to care about anyone else mom," Percy paused, thinking about his dad and his Aunt Hestia. "Well most of them anyway."

Above them, thunder rumbled, as it always did when Percy spoke ill of the godly side of his family. He briefly wondered if they were always watching him, just waiting for the moment he said something that they considered just a little too judgemental.

"You didn't have to drive me, mom, I could've ridden Blackjack here."

The smile she gives him is so sad it breaks his heart to even see it. She places a hand on his cheek and the next words that come out of her mouth are enough to make him want to tell her to turn the Prius around and go back home.

"I know sweetheart," She says softly. "But I couldn't take that chance not knowing how long it would be until I saw you again."

It does break his heart, so much so that he has to stop the tears from falling from his eyes. Why was it that demigods had to lives like this, he hated it so much. He hated making his mom worry the way she did.

He swallowed thickly, pushing back a bundle of emotions that threatened to spill over and break down everything that was holding him together.

"I'll be back soon," He said. "I promise."

His mother nodded and pulled him into a hug.

"I can only hope, Sweatheart." She said as she ran her hands through his already messy hair. "That the fates would be so kind is my only wish."

The woman pressed a kiss to her son's head before letting out a deep sigh.

"Go see what they want." She said, sounding resigned. "And when you get back, we'll celebrate the fact that my son saved the world."

Percy couldn't help but smile, she was always the optimist.

"I'll see you later mom," The demigod said as he exited the car. "I love you."

"I love you too Percy." She gave him one last once over. "I love you so much."

With that, Percy entered the Empire State Building.

The demigod walked up to the receptionist, who had his nose buried deep in some teen magazine. Percy wondered if he was some minor god that the gods had stuck with the task of guarding the door of Olympus. If so, Percy couldn't help but wonder how'd they managed to get him to sit there for possibly the rest of eternity. The pay must be insane, Percy thought offhandedly.

Making sure that no one was around, Percy spoke.

"I need the key to the 600th floor, please."

After a few moments, the receptionist glanced over his magazine and studied Percy for a few moments before handing him the key.

"Good luck up there kid," The man glanced at the elevator doors and an unknown emotion passed over his face. "You're gonna need it."

It didn't do anything to quell the growing sense of anxiousness that was nestling itself in Percy's stomach, nor, by any account, the sense of dread that washed over him like a wave crashing down over a surfers head. Gods it was terrible. But he found himself stepping into the elevator anyway and as much as he hated to admit it, the terrible elevator music helped to distract him from what could only be described as a disaster. He hoped his mom would be okay, everything else didn't matter as long as she was okay.

The elevator stopped with a ding that seemed to echo throughout the empty streets of Olympus. While it was still partially destroyed, he couldn't figure out why its roads weren't filled with its inhabitants, the immortals who made it the stuff of legends. Instead, it was like a ghost town, and Percy was the only unlucky soul who had to traverse through it. Was this the end for him, he thought darkly. Had the gods decided that they were through with him. Used him for their own advantage, and now decided that they were done with him, like some children's toy.

He was tempted to turn around and let them come running to find him. A demigod on the run from the gods, no it didn't sound impossible at all, he assured himself.

It wasn't long before he reached the throne room door and a sudden thought struck him.

_You are a prince,_ his mind whispered. _ I refuse to let you go out as anything other._

The thought was sudden, yes, but Percy still found himself straightening his back from the slouched position it was previously in. There was a confidence in his stance now, confidence that Percy had no idea existed inside himself.

With that Percy pushed open the throne room doors and was greeted with the Olympians in all their godly glory. He walked quietly to the center of the room and even though he could feel all eyes on him, he didn't bow.

Zeus regarded him with cold eyes, not the look an uncle should give his nephew, but the demigod returned his gaze equally. If he were to leave this world today, he would go out on equal footing, not scared into submission by an uncle who hated him for being born.

"I see you finally made it, nephew," The god of thunder said icily. "Do tell us, how was your trip, since you seem so inclined to take your time."

"It was fine," Percy said evenly. "If anything a little gloomy, but I guess the weathers just like that sometimes."

Thunder rumbled loudly overhead, and Percy had no doubt that he had struck a nerve in Zeus. This of course, probably meant that the thunder god went from a nine to eleven on Percy's hostility scale. The demigod took the risk of looking around the throne room, catching several immortal gazes as he did so.

The first of which was his father, who gave him a sly smile but spoke nothing. The god of the sea's eyes did hold a warning though, one that practically screamed **THIS IS DANGEROUS TERRITORY, RETREAT. **

The next was his uncle's. Hades looked disinterested, but Percy could tell that his uncle, his favorite uncle if he was being honest, was waiting for something. It sent alarms running through Percy's head that made him reach for his pockets and the weapon concealed within. Sure, they were gods, but he certainly wouldn't go down without a fight if a brawl broke out. His fight with Kronos had been on an even more unfair power scale and yet he still managed to come out of that one still alive, so he'd take his chances here.

The next pair of eyes that captured were those of his Aunt Hestia. Her usually kind brown ones burned bright like the embers of the same hearth that she tended. He could see the anger in them, so unfamiliar yet so vast, it made Percy remember that she was the eldest child of Kronos. Even beyond that though, Percy could see the sadness that hid there.

_WHAT THE HADES IS GOING ON, _ Percy wanted to scream.

He'd been so involved in his own thoughts that he didn't realize that Zeus, lord thunder pants himself, had been speaking. A clap of thunder that threatened to burst his eardrums sounded throughout the throne room and brought Percy's attention back to the situation at hand.

"So sea spawn, do you admit to your crimes against Olympus."

Percy blinked. Once, twice and then three-time before Zeus's words finally settled in.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"You see Poseidon," Zeus says as if everything had fallen into place. He pointed a finger towards Percy. "Your _Spawn_ gets caught amidst committing war crimes and he doesn't even have the audacity to defend himself."

Poseidon glares at Zeus before he begins speaking.

"There have been no war crimes committed here Bolt Brain, and you would know this if you stopped being so paranoid and looked at things clearly for once. What my son did was simply communicating with a close friend and there is no possible way that you can twist that in any fashion that would warrant my son's death."

Zeus was practically foaming at the mouth.

"_Fraternizing," _There was so much weight pressed on the word that Percy was nearly crushed. "With the enemy, Poseidon, as far as we know those letters contained every strategy that we used in this war. Every weakness that the camp had. Every single quest that your son has been on could have been orchestrated by your son and that Hermes boy in an attempt to destroy us."

Percy saw Hermes flinch, and suddenly everything fit into place for him. Fraternizing with the enemy, letters, Hermes boy. He and Hermes shared a look and his eyes widened. The feeling that settled in Percy's stomach was more than unpleasant, it felt like he was about to set his breakfast free and he wouldn't be able to stop it once it started.

It had been years since the first letter had arrived, right after Percy had returned home from his first summer at camp half-blood and gods how he wished he would have been smarter about it. He'd found it laid gently on his pillow, in a sky blue envelope and handwriting that he couldn't recognize. There was a return address, but Percy didn't recognize it either, not until several years later

When he'd read it, he'd spent about an hour crying and rereading it. He didn't know why at the time, but it had struck a chord that he quite frankly, didn't know he had. He could still remember what the letter had said to this day.

_Dear Percy,_

_I'm sorry._

_I know I'm the last person that you want to hear this from, but it's true. I'm sorry for the pain that I have caused you and everything that's about to come. You don't deserve it. Kronos says that the gods have grown corrupt, that they've allowed themselves to be forgotten and at the same time, put themselves on a pedestal that they think can't be knocked from under them. It shouldn't be like that, but it is._

_And us Percy, what about us. The gods think that they can have as many of us as they want without any consequences and then they don't acknowledge our existence until they need something from us, or even worse, we die without knowing who our parents are and we're stuck. They want us to fight their battles, clean up the messes they made._

_We aren't soldiers, Percy, we were never meant to be._

_Luke._

There were more, 1 or 2 each year after that and believe it or not, Percy responded to each of them, he had still believed that Luke could be redeemed, that the son of Hermes could come back to them and then they'd be able to work everything out. He now realized why he had hoped beyond hope that Luke would come back to them. Annabeth hadn't been the only one who had a crush on Luke, the two of them had just handled it very differently.

"I-" Percy began, searching for the right words to say. "There wasn't anything in those letters but Luke and me."

He had the eyes of every olympian once again.

"We were just two teenagers," Percy could feel tears well up in his eyes as his heart ached and beat hard against his chest. "We weren't demigods, we weren't soldiers, and we weren't commanding armies. We were just Luke Castellan and Percy Jackson."

"If you think that's a war crime, Lord Zeus," Percy looked at his uncle in the eyes. "Then I am guilty as charged."

The room was quiet. However, Zeus looked pleased with himself.

"For your crimes against Olympus," Zeus paused a cruel glint in his eyes. "I banish you from this dimension for as long as I rule it."

There were several cries of outrage. Percy stood frozen in his spot as his uncle shot a bolt of lightning at the floor in front of him. Percy watched as the floor in front of him seemed to crumble in slow motion, creeping toward him to bring him to his inevitable doom. All at once he saw his father lunge at Zeus, Apollo and Hermes jumped off their thrones, Aphrodite covered her mouth in horror and even Artemis looked shocked. Hestia slammed her fire poker into the floor of the throne room and a blaze of fire was sent out toward Percy.

Then as soon as it started, it stopped.

Percy finally let himself break. Tears flowed freely down his face as he let himself fall down to his knees and his head fell into his hands. A choked sob forced its way from his throat as he thought of his mother, gods she was gonna be heartbroken, he wouldn't be able to keep his promise to her, not even hours after he'd made it.

"Dry your eyes now child," A voice suddenly spoke from behind him. "Zeus means to see you broken by separating you from all those you love. I would have thought you too strong to let and enemy see you vulnerable."

Percy turned, expecting to come face to face with someone, but all that he was met with was an amorphous blob. It was mostly black but if he looked closer, Percy could see little white lights flickering in and out of existence across the surface of the blob.

"What…." Percy paused. "What are you?"

The blob chuckled and pulsed. He heard several grunts and turned to see several of the gods had become unfrozen. His father, Hades, Apollo, Hermes and Hestia, he also noticed Artemis looking around cautiously as she came unfrozen too.

"I am the first one, my dear grandson and I am here prevent Zeus from destroying your happy ending."

It was easy to say that it wasn't the answer that Percy was expecting. Even as his father enveloped Percy in his arms, all the demigod could do was blink, his mind racing up his godly family tree at super speed.

"Chaos." He said finally. "You're Chaos."

He was much calmer than he expected, but the blob that was Chaos let out a hum and pulsed once more. Percy noticed a slight shift in color across the surface of the blob as red seemed into its black spaces.

"Yes I am, and you are far smarter than you allow people to give you credit for." 

Percy could feel the heat rise to his cheeks but before he could say anything, his father spoke.

"While we appreciate your interference, first one, may I kindly ask why you decided to interfere."

There was a pregnant pause that hung in the air, the first one seemed to be regarding them all in a way that seemed to be judging their character. Percy wiggled his way out of his father's hold waited in anxious anticipation for the ancient beings answer.

"Because it is woven into the tapestry of fate that your son would be banished today, Poseidon, and while I can do nothing to stop his banishment, I can influence it so that he goes somewhere where he might be able to thrive, where the tiniest strand of his fate string lingers and branches out into thousands upon thousands more, and while you might be separated from what you knew here physically, this would give me the opportunity to keep you and your family connected."

The room was silent until Hestia asked a question.

"How would you do this, you said you cannot stop his banishment, how else would you keep him from being separated from us?"

Chaos pulsed and there was a flash of light so bright that even the gods had to cover their eyes. When they opened them, there were several projections of floating galaxies floating among them. One thing that connected each though, was a single sea green thread that all came from a single person in the room, Percy.

"As most of you know, this dimension is just one of several other realities that every being in existence lives on. Zeus is planning to use a very old, very powerful spell that would rip a hole in one of these universes and send young Perseus hurtling through with reckless abandon. It's obvious that he intends the boy never to return."

"But how can you help him?" Poseidon asked desperately, and a calming aura washed over them all.

"I can influence the universe where Perseus is thrown to, and in doing so, I could keep Perseus connected to this world "

Percy looked at his father, then at his cousins, and finally his uncle. Then finally back to Chaos.

"I think your way is the best way for me to not lose everything and everyone I love, but I can't go anywhere without seeing my mom."

"That can be done."

Energy pulsed through the room, and before Percy knew it, his mother was standing a few feet away from him looking slightly surprised to be in the throne room. She looked around at the few gods who were unfrozen, and then her eyes glanced over the gods who were, and finally her eyes settled on Percy,.

"Hello," She said carefully. "Would someone mind telling me what's going on?" 

"Hello, Sally Jackson." Chaos said. "You've done a remarkable job raising Perseus, but I suppose Zeus doesn't exactly agree, which I suppose is why you're here."

Sally's eyes flickered over to the frozen thunder god.

"What's happening?" She asked, he voice suddenly sounding much stronger than what it should've. Poseidon was the one to speak up.

"To put it simply, Zeus believes Percy to be a war criminal. He's somehow managed to find letters sent between Percy and Luke Castellan, the host of Kronos, and believes Percy was conspiring against Olympus. Because of this, he's banished Percy from this dimension using an ancient, powerful spell that can be broken." 

The woman's eyes widened.

"But Chaos has come here to offer a solution, that while it wouldn't allow Percy to stay here, we would not lose him completely. It would allow us to keep in touch through a small rip in the fabric of space and time and allow us to send small things such as letters."

A small part of Sally Jackson was heartbroken, but the other half wasn't at all surprised. Even in the myths, Zeus had always been hostile toward Poseidon. Why would that change for his son. If anything, Sally had to assume that the gods paranoia had gotten the better of him. Still though, she pushed down on the negative feelings rising in her chest, it left a bitter taste in her mouth. She wanted her son to be safe, somewhere where she could still talk to him and know that he was doing okay, even if it was minimal contact at most. She didn't want him to have to fend for himself, off in some other universe where he didn't know anybody, and couldn't even talk to her or her father or any of his cousins.

"Do it." She said quietly. "But first I have to speak to my son."

And so the gods let her speak.

Sally Jackson took her sons hands in her own.

"I want you to know that you are the greatest son a mother could ever ask for. You have made me proud over and over again and I would never change you for anything, but maybe this is good for you. Because Zeus seems to have it out for you in a way that really isn't healthy for anyone, this would be the only chance that I have to protect you more than ever before. I know you're capapble of handling yourself, but please, go, for both of us."

There was a silence that hung between the two of them, before finally, Percy nodded.

"I'll go."

Sally nodded, Percy could see the tears welling up in her eyes.

Chaos pulsed once again and seemed to glow a little bit brighter than before.

"So what's the catch?" Percu asked cautiously.

"I can tell now that Zeus has altered the spell in ways that I have yet to uncover. This means that it's possible that there are things he wants specifically to go his way in whatever realm he plans on sending you to. My interference means that, while he cannot send you to the worst of the worst, the circumstances that you encounter still might not be the best."

Percy nodded.

"The world I intend to send you to is both familiar too you and yet wildly different from what you have experienced before." Percy raised an eyebrow. "Those fairy tales, your people are so fond of, specifically, those adaptations created by the company that shall not be named. They are far more familiar to you than it would seem."

"So," Percy started. "You're telling me I'd be living in a movie."

"Not a movie," Chaos quickly replied. "But a reality far more complex than what you ever see. And your involvement and integration into that reality will change it even more.

"Okay. I guess if that's what's going to happen might as well get it over with."

"Very well then," Chaos said. "You need to go stand back where you were. It's vital that Zeus believes no one is interfering when I resume time."

Percy nodded before moving back into the spot he once occupied.

"Remember Perseus," Chaos's voice called out. "Those who defeat gods cannot remain ordinary individuals."

Percy didn't have time to wonder what Chaos meant before the flore disappeared from underneath him. The words continued to bounce around his his head as he fell. Alongside them was a feeling that the demigod couldn't particularly describe and yet it still weighed heavy in his heart. He wondered if his mother would be okay with him leaving, even if he didn't have any choice in the matter. He wondered how his friends would react, if they'd notice at all. He wondered if he'd saved the world for nother,, because being exiled from it after savng it seemed like a knife to the heart.

He knew it sounded wrong, downright selfish, but he didn't care. Especailly since he was being sent away to some unknown place with no hope of getting back. No, he had every right to be angry, to be sad, to be downright furious and make sure the gods would know, especiall Zeus. He closed his eyes and called upon his powers, all of them. It was like a glass globe had broken at his very center of his being and he grabbed it, and completly crushed it to dust.

Back uup on Olympus, the room began to shake. More specifically, the ground beneath Zeus's throne. The gods watched as long cracks started forming from the base of his throne and slowly made their way up until they reached the very top. They watched with wide eyes as the throne began to crumble into thick chunks of marble that fell to the floor around them.


End file.
